The connection may seem like a stretch, but not if you consider that each painter was known for their strident attitudes and willingness to paint their visions, even when it wasn’t all that pleasant to look at.

Here’s how David Anfam, the Still’s adjunct curator, put it in the press release:

“We are certain Clyfford Still identified with Vincent van Gogh on myriad levels, not least of which was their shared commitment to art as a kind of religious faith, and their mutual sense of themselves as outsiders.”